This morning, U.S. District Judge Joel A. Pisano sentenced Rowley to 108 months in prison for trading images of children being sexually abused, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said in a news release.

Rowley had previously pleaded guilty to a charge of receipt and distribution of child pornography.

In addition to the prison term, Rowley was also sentenced to five years of supervised release.

Rowley admitted to receiving images of child pornography and sharing them on the Internet between the dates of March 7 and May 3, 2009. The images included graphic depictions of children under the age of 12 suffering sexual abuse.

Rowley was originally arrested in September 2009. As part of his guilty plea, Rowley agreed to forfeit the computers and computer accessories he used to commit the offense.

Bayonne police began investigating Rowley in 2009 after a Louisiana man told local authorities he had been sharing pornographic images with New Jersey residents. The original investigation revealed that Rowley had used a Web cam to show himself to online chatters who he believed to be 12- and 13-year-old girls, Bayonne Detective Neil Reynolds said in 2009.